Board Prep: Zanki Step Deck vs. Lightyear

[Rogue42]

Which one is best for board prep (test roughly 1 + 2 months year out), and why? I am really torn between the two, and I know you can't go wrong with either. Just looking for opinions from people who have been through this process / people who use one vs the other.

Thanks!

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[BoneWizard]

Just use the AnKing deck. It has all of zanki + B&B and is tagged like LY.

 

[Scrubb]

A few questions to ask yourself:
- do you learn best from cloze deletion cards only (AnKing) or do you like a mix of clozes and front/back (Lightyear)?
- do you want to do a **** ton of cards (AnKing) or just a lot of cards (Lighyear)?
- do you need a card for every single FirstAid fact and more (AnKing) or are you okay with less but still thorough coverage (Lightyear)?

In my opinion, AnKing is overkill. But it really depends on your learning style. I don't need a card for every single fact and I also don't like a lot of the clozes AnKing deck has. It doesn't help me to fill in one word out of five sentences. I like classic front/back cards.

A combo I would highly recommend if you like cards that have one or a couple question(s) on the front and multiple answers on the back:
(1) Lightyear (to follow along with B&B and hammer home phys/path details) minus drugs/bugs (see 3 below)
(2) Duke deck (to follow along with Pathoma and hammer home overarching concepts and histopath)
(3) Pepper Pharm and Micro (for Sketchy bugs/drugs)

This will give you great, in-depth coverage and allow you to follow along with the associated video resources very easily. Also ties together subjects/concepts better for me rather than having 30 facts on one subject spread out over 30 cards, like AnKing.

Good luck!

 

[ExplodingUlcers]

A few questions to ask yourself:
- do you learn best from cloze deletion cards only (AnKing) or do you like a mix of clozes and front/back (Lightyear)?
- do you want to do a **** ton of cards (AnKing) or just a lot of cards (Lighyear)?
- do you need a card for every single FirstAid fact and more (AnKing) or are you okay with less but still thorough coverage (Lightyear)?

In my opinion, AnKing is overkill. But it really depends on your learning style. I don't need a card for every single fact and I also don't like a lot of the clozes AnKing deck has. It doesn't help me to fill in one word out of five sentences. I like classic front/back cards.

A combo I would highly recommend if you like cards that have one or a couple question(s) on the front and multiple answers on the back:
(1) Lightyear (to follow along with B&B and hammer home phys/path details) minus drugs/bugs (see 3 below)
(2) Duke deck (to follow along with Pathoma and hammer home overarching concepts and histopath)
(3) Pepper Pharm and Micro (for Sketchy bugs/drugs)

This will give you great, in-depth coverage and allow you to follow along with the associated video resources very easily. Also ties together subjects/concepts better for me rather than having 30 facts on one subject spread out over 30 cards, like AnKing.

Good luck!

Probably the most underrated aspect of Anking is the robust extras section that references, FA pages, histology slides, etc. These are absolute gold when you need a refresher on a concept.

IMO the amount of cards in Anking is reasonable if you suspend the redundant cards or combine cloze deletions into one card. It's also tagged to a bunch of resources like Pathoma, BNB, sketchy, Costanzo, FA etc affording you greater flexibility.

 

[slowthai]

Probably the most underrated aspect of Anking is the robust extras section that references, FA pages, histology slides, etc. These are absolute gold when you need a refresher on a concept.

IMO the amount of cards in Anking is reasonable if you suspend the redundant cards or combine cloze deletions into one card. It's also tagged to a bunch of resources like Pathoma, BNB, sketchy, Costanzo, FA etc affording you greater flexibility.

This is critical for maximizing your understanding of the cards. So important for making your way into the higher scoring territory.

 

[Scrubb]

Probably the most underrated aspect of Anking is the robust extras section that references, FA pages, histology slides, etc. These are absolute gold when you need a refresher on a concept.

IMO the amount of cards in Anking is reasonable if you suspend the redundant cards or combine cloze deletions into one card. It's also tagged to a bunch of resources like Pathoma, BNB, sketchy, Costanzo, FA etc affording you greater flexibility.

That is a really nice feature. But a lot of the Lightyear cards have FA screenshots, Pepper has FA screenshots, and Duke deck has all the histology you could ever ask for. It's really just a matter of preference and opinion. They'll both work fine; I was just giving my recommendation for people who like front/back cards more.

 

[BoneWizard]

I mean, Anking is 30k cards. LY is 22k, Duke is 2k and Pepper pharm/micro is another 3(?)k. You're basically at the same number.
If you start middle of M1 and do 50 cards a day you'll have the deck matured by the time dedicated rolls around.

 

[Scrubb]

I mean, Anking is 30k cards. LY is 22k, Duke is 2k and Pepper pharm/micro is another 3(?)k. You're basically at the same number.
If you start middle of M1 and do 50 cards a day you'll have the deck matured by the time dedicated rolls around.

If you do the bugs/drugs in Pepper there's no need to do the drug/micro sections in LY. So it's gonna be a significant amount of cards less than Anking. But either way, it's preference.

 

[Rogue42]

Im confused...the "Zanki Step Deck" that I have is roughly 17k cards and the LY deck is 22.5.

I definitely like the fill in the blank (I guess otherwise known as front/back? Honestly unsure of the exact terminology). I am starting in about a week, and doing 75 cards a day to build in some unknown days off and be matured around the start of April next year.

I don't quite understand how to use the LY deck yet as I have to suspend / unsuspend cards which does not make sense to me yet.

I just do not want to pick the wrong deck, and then figure that out in 6 months from now

 

[Espressso]

Im confused...the "Zanki Step Deck" that I have is roughly 17k cards and the LY deck is 22.5.

I definitely like the fill in the blank (I guess otherwise known as front/back? Honestly unsure of the exact terminology). I am starting in about a week, and doing 75 cards a day to build in some unknown days off and be matured around the start of April next year.

I don't quite understand how to use the LY deck yet as I have to suspend / unsuspend cards which does not make sense to me yet.

I just do not want to pick the wrong deck, and then figure that out in 6 months from now

Dude, you need to go to r/medicalschoolanki . They have all your answers and better descriptions from the authors of these decks. The newest Anking Zanki massive deck is your best bet. It has it all in there.

 

[hungrydoc710]

I'm using AnKing deck but only Bchem, Lolnotacop, and Pharm parts of it.
I think Dukes Pathoma deck is superior for path.

I've kept up with reviews from all these decks for past 151 days along with doing mostly Rx questions (1250). Will be done with all 4 of these decks in a month or so just when dedicated starts, and will just continue with reviews and hit UW random sets of 40 and prob polish off rest of Rx.

Dunno if that helped, but hearing someones plan helped me form my own.
Cheers.

 

[JimBone905]

Both are fine from what i read. All about preference.